They sat for another half hour, and all this time Kenshin pondered the situation. On one hand, it was extremely dangerous, and on the other hand, great danger bordered on great opportunity.
In the end, he decided that such an opportunity could not be missed, and after dinner sent the girls to the bedroom, and he gathered all his sons in the gym, lining them up in one rank.
"Ichiro, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth. Get a good night's sleep; tomorrow morning you have a combat mission." Kenshin commanded, folding his hands behind his back, pacing past the stunned sons.
"All the rest — home security and mothers' safety. Understood?" he said, sharply stopping and turning to face them.
"Yes, father!" all answered in chorus.
"I will report the approximate plan tomorrow morning, as well as the specifics of the mission. And now you are free!" he commanded, and everyone immediately dispersed to their rooms.
Kenshin surprisingly noted his sons' inclination to discipline and obedience. Direct commands were not disputed but only clarified and supplemented if they had something to say.
While everyone went to bed, Kenshin himself began preparing for tomorrow's operation. First of all, he strengthened and reinforced several mother ropes so they would not break from clearing huge stones from collapses.
Strengthening the ropes took him only half an hour; he spent the rest of the night working out the already existing "exo-suit" concept, which he himself called that due to similar properties.
In fact, the concept of this exo-suit was quite primitive and consisted of a tight one-piece suit like divers, on which multiple formations were to be applied, from strengthening to proper weight distribution.
And if strengthening the suit he could do in a few minutes, then with weight distribution, especially proper — there were some hitches. He spent half the night just sifting through possible engineering solutions to the problem or simply — crutches.
Some "crutches" could help lift a whole ton of weight but threatened to break the formation and suit, and then the user's spine.
Others, on the contrary, increased the carried weight by several tens of kilograms but completely excluded the possibility of accidents that could lead to user injury.
Kenshin faced the task of taking the best from both options and creating a formation with an acceptable amount of distributed weight but without risks of spinal fracture.
By morning, he finally came up with a solution and immediately jumped to the suit, wanting to apply it in practice as soon as possible. He applied key formation nodes using telekinesis, but where jewelry work was required — he had to work the old-fashioned way.
By eight in the morning, he finally finished and immediately put on the suit, heading to the gym. According to his calculations, the suit could help him lift about three hundred kilograms that would feel like sixty kilograms. Weight beyond three hundred kilograms would no longer be "lightened", and if the user wanted to lift 340 kilograms, he had to be able to lift 100 kilograms. The suit would no longer participate in the "extra" kilograms, excluding the possibility of sudden malfunctions.
At least that was the theory. To test it all in practice — Kenshin pulled various barbells for about half an hour, checking the suit's durability and smoothness of magic flow in the formation nodes.
When all measurements were done, Kenshin sighed with relief and fell onto the long bench, leaning his back against the wall. He already had a draft plan for rescuing the trapped kunoichi, and for this he needed to play the role of a "handsome prince"
He did not forget that all women by default treat him friendly and decided that combined with rescue from the trap — the effect would only increase, allowing him to get an extremely strong kunoichi at his disposal without extra problems.
At breakfast, Kenshin announced the mission goal and briefed his sons on various plan aspects.
Plan A — assumed that the letter was not a fake, and the girl would accept help without resistance.
Plan B — assumed that the letter was still not a fake, but the girl would offer slight resistance, not wanting to go who knows where with unknown people. In this case, it was prescribed to apply necessary force without causing critical damage and especially murder.
Plan C — assumed that the letter was a fake, and then act according to circumstances. If possible — leave unnoticed; if not — mainly save Kenshin.
Kenshin understood that saving his life at the cost of his sons' lives was wrong. However, he also understood that without him — their whole family would be doomed to death one way or another. Moreover, like any person — he strongly wanted to live.
After breakfast, Kenshin told everyone to prepare the necessary equipment and went to take a nap himself. The sleepless night made itself felt. Moreover, he thought that if they rescued the girl a few hours later, it would even be better.
He really did not want to interact with a strong kunoichi. As cynical as it sounded, a weakened and exhausted kunoichi was preferable, at least for preserving his sons' health.
At the current moment, this girl was a stranger to him, whose life was worth much less than the life of any of his sons. And although he was sure that if she became his wife, he would sooner or later love her with all his heart, at the moment he felt no warm feelings for her.
After sleeping six hours, Kenshin got up, took a shower, put on his exo-suit with gloves, and barely visible lines glowed pale blue for half a second.
The sons were already ready and working out some interaction moments, divided into groups of 2 people by age and joint growing up. Ichiro was the only one without a partner and performed the commander's duties in father's absence.
Checking everything again, Kenshin led everyone outside, and they moved along the intended route.
"Kasumi did not report exact coordinates of the place, only approximate. According to my calculations — it's seven kilometers east of our base. She reported that in the nearby forest there remained battle traces, fallen trees, and loose earth. This should serve as a landmark for Konoha shinobi who will come to help her…"
"Fifth and Sixth can check the nearest few kilometers of the forest." Ichiro suggested and received Kenshin's approval.